


DIOSCURI

by thesleepdeprived



Series: GEMINI [1]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: AU, Acephobia, Angst, Aro Dan, Aromantic Character, Asexual Character, Empathic Powers, Fluff, Gemini - Freeform, Internalized Acephobia, Mild Ableism, Other, Phandom Big Bang, Queerplatonic relationship, Slow Burn, Superheroes, Superpowers, Telekinesis, Telepathic Powers, a queerplatonic slow burn, ace phil, but like, fair warning the acearo plotline doesn't come in until later, idk what else to call it????, kinda evil government, memory related powers, mute character, romance is overrated, sci-fi kinda
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-01 22:43:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8641045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesleepdeprived/pseuds/thesleepdeprived
Summary: phandom big bang 2016 colors whirling, thoughts flashing-it felt as if the butterflies in his stomach had lit themselves on fire.   "you weren't supposed to find out..." or, the one where Dan and Phil end up with superpowers, including the ability to feel each other's emotions and hear each other's thoughts, are declared threats and taken into custody by the government, Dan's confused, and Phil has a secret.





	1. chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> wooooo! this fic has been... a challenge. aside from being the longest thing I've ever written, it's also the most complex. prepare yourselves for a wild ride !!  
> huge, huge thank you to my amazing beta and artist, sara ([her tumblr! ](https://icomparemyselftoyou.tumblr.com))and natalia ([her tumblr!](https://nataliadeluckah.tumblr.com))!! you guys are so amazing and so talented, thank you for being my cheerleaders, i couldn't have done it without you!!!  
> i hope you enjoy!  
> (the entire fic will be up on my [tumblr](https://skyboidjh.tumblr.com/fics) eventually, this will be updated EVERY OTHER DAY!!

Chapter 1

 

  The world was ending. 

  Perhaps it was a bit melodramatic, but that’s what it felt like to Dan. His head pounded as he shakily sat up, the sound of fire engines’ sirens on his street muted, as if the world had been muffled by cotton, or a thick blanket of fog. A sudden shock of anxiety raced through his heart, the worry and fear so intense it almost seemed to be a physical pain. He tried to breathe deeply, but it was as if he couldn’t get enough oxygen into his lungs, causing him to wheeze in short, shallow gasps.

  What had just happened? Where was Phil?

  Dan stumbled to his feet, grabbing onto the side of his couch to pull himself up.

  “Phil?” His voice came out hoarse, croaky. He coughed roughly before trying his voice again. “Phil? Where are you?” He tried to remember what had been happening before this- he must’ve passed out, the last thing he could remember was getting up to get a drink. But why? Why couldn’t he breathe? Where was Phil?

  Dan looked around frantically for his phone, the world seeming to blur around him. It was nowhere in sight.

  The apartment seemed hazy, filled with a kind of shimmer in the air, like one that might hang above a distant stretch of highway on a hot day, yet the air was cool around him. Had he hit his head? Was that what had knocked him out?

  Dan tried taking yet another deep breath to steady himself, choking a bit as he inhaled, quickly finding it harder and harder to breathe. He sunk to the floor once more, wheezing and coughing. 

  He must’ve passed out again, because when he next opened his eyes, Phil was kneeling next to him, shaking him awake and tugging him weakly towards the door. Dan’s ears were ringing now, a dull hum vibrating at the back of his skull. His heart pounded with it. Something about that struck him as wrong, but he didn’t know why.

  Phil said something that Dan couldn’t hear, and the humming grew louder. Phil tugged on his arm again, motioning for him to stay down. They slowly crawled to the door, keeping their heads down low to avoid the gas as much as possible.

  They made it to their front door after a treacherous climb down the stairs, tiredly fumbling with the handle until it opened and seeing that there were paramedics just outside, leading the other occupants of the building out to ambulances in small clusters, strapping oxygen masks over their faces. 

  One of the nurses almost immediately came over to Dan and Phil, motioning for one of his colleagues to stay with the teenaged girl that he had previously been attending to. He talked to both of them with a calm, unshaken voice as he instructed them on what to do, and they were led out to the nearest ambulance.

  Red lights flashed across his vision and sirens screamed along to the hum in his head. It was all very disorientating, forcing Dan to squeeze his eyes shut for a moment in an attempt to alleviate his pounding headache. They were instructed to sit down while one of the paramedics gave them a brief check-over. He was kind, asking the two of them questions about their medical history, allergies, and current medications that their foggy brains did their best to answer. 

  Ten minutes later, one of the paramedics told them that they ought to come to the hospital for further checks, to give an official account of what had happened to the police, and that they should start thinking about booking a hotel room for the night while the building was looked over. 

  Dan was about to ask further questions about the hospital visit when he spotted a news van pulling up to the building and starting to unload camera equipment. Images of a Twitter meltdown over a news clip that made everything seem worse than it actually was flashed through his head, and he glanced over to Phil, who seemed to be thinking the same thing. Yes, they were fine, but would their subscribers know that, if all they saw was the two of them sitting in the back of an ambulance?

  “Uh- yeah, should we just ride over to the hospital with the ambulances, or-” Dan asked quickly.

  “Yes, we’re going to be leaving in just a few minutes. There’s a bench in the back, you two can ride in there. I’ll just be around the corner rounding up the rest of your neighbors to come with us, alright?” the nurse said tiredly, before hopping out and beginning to make her way around the parking lot. 

  Dan leaned over to Phil. “If that news camera sees us-”

  “Yeah. Should we tweet something?”

  “Maybe we should wait a bit, I don’t want to worry them too much.”

  Phil nodded, leaning back against the bench. “I dunno about you, but I’ve got a huge headache.”

  Dan made a noise of agreement, slumping down next to him while keeping an eye on the news van. “What the hell even was that, though? Do you think there was a fire?”

  “It couldn’t have been, there’s no smoke,” Phil answered, gesturing to the clear sky above the building. “It wasn’t really hot inside, either.”

  “Then what could it have been?”

  Their conversation was cut short as a sniffling teenaged girl and an older couple who appeared to be her parents were led up to the ambulance. 

  “What about Alex?” the girl was asking. “Is Alex okay? He’s the little one in the wheelchair, my little brother, he’s only seven, please look after him first-” The paramedics shushed her with calming words, guiding her to sit down on the bench opposite Dan and Phil. 

  “Alex is going to be coming to the hospital with everyone else, it’ll be alright, love. You’ll get to see him in just a few minutes when we all arrive, alright? What’s your name, sweetheart? I’ll make sure that you get to see him as soon as possible.”

  “P-Paige. Paige Oliveira.”

  “It’ll be alright, Paige. Just wait here, we’ll be leaving in a moment.” With that, the ambulance doors shut and the tiny cabin was illuminated by bright strips of fluorescent lights in the ceiling. Paige started to sniffle again. Her fear seemed to hang in the air, pressing down on everyone in the cabin.

  Dan glanced over at Phil. “We’ll be alright,” he said, but it was admittedly more for his own comfort than anyone else’s. 

-=II=-

  The ambulance finally arrived in a whir of sirens and flashing lights. It seemed that the other vehicles were getting unloaded first, as the doors to their little cabin remained shut for a while after they had stopped. Paige had jumped up from her seat, pacing back and forth in the small space. Her mother made a few attempts to calm the anxious girl, muttering a few words to her in a language that sounded like French, if a little different, and pulling her daughter to sit back down again, stroking her thick black hair. Her father was leaned back across the bench, staring blankly into the wall beside Phil’s shoulder. 

  “Hey, it’ll be alright guys,” Dan said cautiously, trying to reassure the nervous duo across from him. They either didn’t hear him or didn’t care.  

  Soon enough though, the doors swung open and they were greeted by a team of nurses swarming around the ambulance, leading them all out. 

  Paige immediately started shouting at the top of her lungs. “I’m fine, I just need to find my brother, please, don’t worry about me, I need to find Alex Ramirez, can anyone please tell me where he is?” Her father soon joined in the ruckus, and they were both escorted away by a nurse.  

  Dan and Phil were lead into the hospital by a male nurse, who informed them that they were going to do a few simple tests to determine what had happened to the air in their building, what its effects might be, and how best to move forward. They were reassured that it shouldn’t take more than two hours. 

  “What about all of our things?” Dan said suddenly as they walked, “The building’s going to be closed for the police, we don’t have extra clothes or anything, and-”

  For a moment, Dan’s head throbbed, and a wave of pity crashed over him. He shook his head and it was gone, leaving him confused. Who had he even been pitying? Himself?

  “I heard that it’ll be about a week before they open the building back up,” the nurse replied, “If you guys need anything, financial aid to cover the hotel or places where you can get cheap temporary clothes, I can ask around-”

  “Thanks, but we’ll figure something out,” Dan said a bit more sharply than he had intended.

  The nurse led them to a small room with a traditional-looking hospital bed, cabinets of medical equipment, and several ugly patterned chairs, instructing them to wait for another nurse, who would be administering the actual check-up, before stepping out.

  Phil buried his head in his hands as soon as he had collapsed into one of the chairs lining the edges of the room, sighing. “This is a mess.”

  Dan laughed humorlessly. “You could say that.”

  “What the hell are we going to do about Summer in the City in two days? We won’t have different clothes, all of our passes and things are back at the house…”

  “We’ll figure something out, yeah? Call the people who run it and explain what’s happened, surely they’ll be able to do something? We can stop by a store somewhere and pick up some more clothes before then.”

  “And how long could we be stuck without our apartment for? All our filming equipment and our laptops are there- wait, did you get your phone on your way out?”

  Dan’s eyes widened. “Shit. No. But-” He scrambled for some positive way to spin this, some reassurance. “We’ll be fine, alright? We can figure it out.” He reached out and placed a hand on Phil’s shoulder. He meant it as a comforting gesture, but it was one that turned sour as a strong wave of dizziness crashed over him. Suddenly, he was enveloped in a bright flash of colors- blue, red, purple, orange, forming fleeting images that disappeared before he could grasp what they actually were.  A heavy weight, a dense cloud seemed to condense around his head, pelting him with raindrops of worries he wasn’t sure were entirely his, thoughts and confusion and anxiety bouncing around his brain like a rubber ball dropped from a tall building.  Most oddly, these thoughts seemed to be in a voice not his own, but one resembling Phil’s. He jerked away, wide-eyed, his expression mirrored in the face of his friend. Did Phil feel that too? Was Dan going crazy?

  “What the-” Dan was cut off by a tap on the door followed by it slowly creaking open, startling them. A new nurse walked in, hair pulled back into a high blonde ponytail and a soft smile on her face as she pushed a small cart of equipment into the room. She introduced herself as Amy, explaining the sorts of things she would be checking for- a breath analysis, blood analysis, and their vitals.

  “Shall we start with you, then?” She gestured to Phil, who happened to be closer to the door. 

  Phil agreed after a moment’s hesitation, confusion from the previous events still evident on his face, leading the nurse to ask if he had any questions. (Both Dan and Phil certainly did, though almost absolutely not any she would be able to answer.) Those thoughts Dan had heard, they definitely weren’t his own. Phil winced as Amy took a blood sample, determinedly looking away from the needle and towards the wall. She had him take a deep breath and blow into a tube, then taking his blood pressure and asking a few questions about possible symptoms he had been feeling in the past hour or so.

  Amy repeated the process with Dan, who was avoiding eye contact with Phil, still reeling in shock.

  She finished her work deftly, straightening up after she took down a final bit of information on her laptop.“Well, I’m going to send this off, I have a few forms I need you guys to fill out with contact information for when your results come in and in case the police have any questions for you,” She smiled, pulling two clipboards from her cart and handing them over. 

  They took the boards blankly, picking up the pens attached and beginning to write. “You guys can leave whenever you’re done, just drop those off at the front desk when you do!” Amy said before wheeling her cart back out of the room, presumably moving on to the next one.

  For the next ten minutes, the two filled out their information in silence.

-=II=-

  Dan and Phil arrived at their nearest hotel at about nine. It was sort of a 3-star place, but would suffice for a few nights. They didn’t exactly have any baggage, so they settled down on the two queen beds instead of unpacking. They hadn’t spoken about what had happened in the hospital yet, less because of shame and fear and more due to a lack of knowing what to say at all. Dan flipped the TV on to some shitty reality show and they watched it absent-mindedly for a while, before Phil cautiously spoke. 

  “What was that, back there?”

  Dan rolled over onto his side to face his friend. “It wasn’t just me, then.”

  “Like… the flashing pictures and crazy colors and emotions thing? Yeah.”

  “Yeah.” A short pause ensued.

  “D’you reckon we’re getting superpowers now?” Phil mused, only partly joking.

  Dan snorted, burying his face in a pillow. 

  “No, really though! If you can come up with a better explanation, I’d honestly love to hear it.”

  Dan didn’t respond for a while. “I-” He paused again. “This is ridiculous.”

  “We’re literally becoming superheroes because of a mysterious gas in our apartment. Ridiculous is an understatement.”

  “Substitute radiation for ‘weird gas’, and we’re like Spider-man!”

  “Or the Hulk,” Dan muttered darkly.

  Silence fell once again at that, the negative implications of this beginning to sink in as their disbelief faded. 

  “What if it was just a one-time thing? A freak accident, or we’re on drugs and none of this is real, something like that?” Dan asked.

  “Dunno. We could try to do it again, what made it happen the first time?”

  “Well, I was reaching over to you, trying to get you to quit freaking out?”

  Dan sat up on the bed, feeling a sort of warm pressure on the backs of his shoulders. It was like a tiny push, an intense curiosity he couldn’t make sense of, for some reason. He reached out to Phil and gently placed a hand on his arm-

  Immediately, the edges of his vision were flooded with the same colors and images as before, still to vague and quickly flashing to fully make out, ( _He was standing on the ledge of Phil's back garden wall, toes hanging over the edge._ ) and his brain echoing with thought. ( _Phil stood behind him, holding up the camcorder with a shy smile. "Come on, just this last clip for the presents part, then we can go in and warm up for a bit_.”) More of that curious warm sensation he had felt was moving from his shoulders to gather around his jaw and throat. ( _The curious, anxious feeling curled around his throat like a scarf as his toes dangled off the wall and Phil recited the lines he’d come up with_.) The colors faded after a short while and Dan began to feel dizzy, but he kept a firm hand on Phil and stared straight into his friend’s eyes. He could make out parts of individual thoughts now.

_ ‘Feels like… afraid…’ _

_   ‘Spider-man…’ _

_   ‘Dan… tight grip’ _

_   (Dan fell face first into the snow.) _

__ Dan realized how tightly he was grabbing at Phil’s upper arm and dropped it like he had been burned. A wave of vertigo rushed over him, and he sat back on the edge of his bed to wait for it to go away. Phil sighed heavily beside him. 

  “That was-” Dan started, before realizing he didn’t know how that sentence might end. Of all the words in the English language, he couldn’t find one to describe what had just happened.

__ “Yeah.”

  The two sat quietly, TV droning softly on in the background, in the way only friends as close as they were could. The quiet wasn’t awkward or tense, merely an understanding that neither knew quite what to say yet, and that for now, lack of communication was okay.

  “So it wasn’t a one-time thing, then.”

  “Apparently not.”

  “What does it feel like to you?” Phil asked, cocking his head slightly to one side. Curiosity tugged at Dan’s shoulder blades again.

  “Like… a rush of colors, at first. Then I get really dizzy, like I’m about to fall over. But then it clears- no, lightens up a bit. I feel all sorts of emotions, but in a way that’s almost physical? Then I was able to hear parts of your actual thoughts, you thought I was holding onto your arm too tight or something, so that’s why I jumped away so suddenly.”

  Phil’s eyebrows knit together. “I get a lot of that too, the dizziness and colors. The physical emotions thing as well, the first time it felt like it was sort of covering me up, like a blanket or something. Just now, it was more like it was pushing me.”

  “I got that last one too. The first one was more like… I dunno really how to describe it, like a sort of weight pushing down around my head? I think that one was worry, you were thinking about our house being filmed and stuff. And the one from just now, curiosity or something? It sort of feels like I can still feel it now, even though we’re not touching.”

  “Both of those sound about right, but I definitely can’t feel anything now. What about the other times? Can you just do it with anyone around?” Phil paused, then dropped his head to his hands. “This is so weird.”

  “I dunno. This whole thing just feels like a dream.”

  “I  _ am _ a bit tired.”

  “Maybe if we go to sleep, everything will be normal again?”

  “Maybe.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> drop a kudos and a comment if you're enjoying so far!  
> MY TWITTER: [ bullshitphanfic ](https://twitter.com/bullshitphanfic)  
> MY TUMBLR: [ skyboidjh](http://skyboidjh.tumblr.com/)


	2. chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! just a heads up, i changed the updates on monday/thursday or whatever i said it was to every other day! because i'm just that impatient.

Chapter 2

 

  Dan was getting more than a bit tired of waking up to life-altering scenarios. 

  At first, everything had seemed fine and normal as he woke up, stretching and yawning before rolling back over into his pillow. His eyes had shot back open, wide, when he realized that it was not, in fact, his pillow. It all came back to him in a flash- the gas, the hospital, the hotel, his  _ freak powers _ -

  Of course, just as he was beginning to process all of that being real, there was someone pounding on their door. Phil somehow stayed asleep through this, causing Dan to sigh and get up to see who it was himself. Maybe they had forgotten to put out a ‘do not disturb’ sign? He peered through the peephole. 

  Two fully-uniformed policemen were outside. One raised a fist to knock again. 

_ They must be here to get our story of what happened _ , Dan thought to himself as he unlocked the door and pulled it open slightly. “Hello, can I help you?”

  He never did get his answer, as the policemen pushed the door open wider, surprising him into jumping backwards a bit. They pushed their way into the hotel room, one grabbing Dan and shoving him into the wall.

  “Hey! What the-” The rush of adrenaline was so much more intense with his new ability, Dan discovered. He struggled against the officer’s tight grip.

  “Just keep your mouth shut and come with us without a fight, and there won’t be any trouble, alright?” the man leered at Dan, his cigarette-scented breath washing over Dan’s face as he put handcuffs on him. Once that was done, he started to drag Dan out of the room.

  Dan’s head was spinning. “What did I do?” he asked, bewildered. “You can’t arrest me if you don’t tell me what I did,” he said quickly, silently thanking his past self for paying attention in at least one law lecture. He heard Phil shout as the other officer got to him, then there were more and more people coming in through the door, dressed in mostly dark colors and what seemed to be protective gear. 

  The officer didn’t answer immediately, simply chuckling at Dan’s statement. “We’re not exactly  _ arresting _ you, kid,” he sneered as he managed to shove Dan out of the door.

  Dan struggled as hard as he could, suddenly absolutely sure that these were  _ not _ cops. How had they found the two of them? Why? He managed to bang his elbow hard against one of the walls in the hall, creating a loud noise. The man dragging him along pulled him to a stop, pressing him back into the wall again. “Do that again, and we will not hesitate to shoot both you and your friend. We know what you are, and how to deal with you, so cooperate. For your own sake.”

  An ice cold feeling spread over Dan’s heart at the man’s words, feeling, in a way, similar to Phil’s emotions that he had felt yesterday, but at the same time so much different, more… intense. Cold. Controlling. He swallowed, relaxing his arms from their previous defensive position between him and the man. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Phil being led out without much of a fight. They must’ve told him the same thing.

  “Where are you taking us?” Dan asked, trying his best to keep his voice from shaking.

  Of course, he didn't get a response, as they continued down the hall. Dan’s mind was racing at a million miles an hour, trying desperately to think of a way to get them both out of this alive.

  Outside of the hotel, after a torturous elevator journey and terrifying walk through a mysteriously silent lobby, Dan glanced around for any CCTV cameras or alarms, anything he might be able to set off to get out of this. They were headed towards a big black van, and he felt a sort of prickle on the back of his neck, unsure if it was someone else’s fear or his own. His thoughts turned hysterical when he realized that once he got into the van, their chances of escaping would be slim to none. He was looking around more desperately now, terrified tears prickling at the corners of his eyes and blurring his vision. Ten feet away. Five. Three. 

  A sharp jab to his back. A rough voice told him to get inside. He twisted around to look over his shoulder, seeing Phil right behind him looking equally desperate and scared as Dan felt. He put up one foot onto the bumper, stretching this out as long as possible. His eyes darted back and forth along the perimeter of the building, finally locking onto an old-looking camera, pointed in such a way that he just might show up in the edge of the frame. Staring directly at it, he managed to mouth out ‘help me’ before being shoved into the car fully. Phil was pushed in behind him and the doors shut, leaving them in total blackness. 

-=II=-

  The first thing that alerted them to the other people in the van was a small whimper.    

  His eyes had not yet adjusted to the darkness, but still Dan looked around anxiously, his absolute hatred of the dark creeping up on him. “Phil?” He called hesitantly.

  “Who’s there?” A voice that was definitely not Phil responded.

  “Dan, where are you?” Phil replied at the same time.

  “Who else is here?” Dan asked, reaching out one hand blindly, searching in the darkness. His eyes were adjusting enough to see faint shapes shifting around, but not much else.

  “There are six of us, outside of you new guys.” Another new voice responded, light and feminine. “Who’re you?”

  “Why are we here?” Dan asked, unsure if he could trust these new people.

  “We think it’s because of an… accident. Were you all in the building that got gassed as well?”

  “Was that what happened?” Dan recited the location of their apartment to the group, confirming it. “Why us? What happened?”

  “Have you all been noticing anything… strange about yourselves recently? Over the past few hours?” Another new voice made itself known. “The gas did something to us.”

  “Yeah, we have.” Phil responded. “What are your names? I’m Phil.”

  “Paige,” replied a vaguely familiar voice.

  “Alan.”

  “Ivan.”

  “I’m Aoife, Paige is my daughter and my son Alex is here as well, but he can’t speak, so he can’t answer, but he’s sitting back here with me,” she spoke in a warm Scottish accent.

  “I’m Gabriel, Aoife’s husband.” 

  “And I’m Dan, Alan, I think we lived right above you? Paige and Gabriel, we rode to the hospital with you, remember?”

  A brief silence followed, then Paige laughed. “I just tried nodding, but you can’t see us. Yeah, I remember.” Her voice trembled, despite her laugh.

  “Yes, I remember meeting you all at one point,” Alan smiled in recognition.

  “E-eefe, was it? Sorry, how did you pronounce that?” Phil questioned.

  “Ee-fah,” Aoife replied with a little laugh. “Don’t worry about it, honestly. With the ridiculous way it’s spelled too, it’s just an inconvenient name to have.”

  “I’m across the hall from Alan, by the way- I don’t remember meeting you all, though,” someone said (It was hard to tell who was speaking just from their voice alone, but Dan was fairly sure it had been Ivan speaking.)

  “What did you guys mean by ‘weird things’ happening to all of us?” Dan asked.

  “Things we couldn’t do before. Weirder than usual dreams, almost like visions. Feelings that aren’t your own,” Gabriel replied.

  “Almost like superpowers,” Paige added.

  Dan’s eyes widened. “Yeah, that’s- that’s exactly it, actually. The emotions one.”

  He was able to make out one of the others nodding knowingly. “Anything other than that? It seems to be different for everyone.”

  “Can anyone else hear thoughts if you’re touching the person? We’ve both got that, as well as feeling other people’s emotions. Nothing else that I’ve noticed, though,” Phil said.

  “I might not need to be touching the person,” Dan speculated. “I thought I could tell what the people who took us were feeling, but that could’ve been something else…”

  “Hearing thoughts, that’s new,” Aoife mused. “What were they feeling, d’you think?”

  “Not anything I could put a specific name to,” Dan replied. “Something strong, and… nasty. Maybe scared of us, one mentioned that he knew ‘what we are,’ whatever that means. I don’t know.”

  “So that must be why we were taken? Because of the power things? Who even are they?”

  “Most likely, yes. Whoever these people are, they must know about the powers. Maybe they were the ones behind us getting them in the first place? Maybe they have the powers themselves? All we can really do is wait and see, at this point. We’re not sure where they’re taking us, either.”

  “Comforting.”

  Alan laughed. “It sure is, isn’t it?”

-=II=-

  None of them were sure exactly how long the car ride was, as they had all been taken sometime during the night or early morning, meaning all they had were pajamas, and therefore no watches or phones.

  At one point, the back doors opened briefly and a new woman, as well as a few bags of crisps were thrown inside. It had all happened so suddenly that they only had been able to jump to their feet, the doors being shut once more the moment the first of them had reached it.

  The woman tearfully introduced herself as Janice, she had been taken away from her kids and had no idea if they had been kidnapped as well, or even killed by their captors.

  She was filled in on what everyone else knew so far, and calmed down a bit. Her two sons had both been out of the apartment when the gassing had occurred, so they wouldn’t have been affected and therefore wouldn’t be a target for their captors.

  They did their best to split the tiny snack-bags of crisps between them, talking over their experiences since yesterday and explaining what powers they had noticed so far.

  “I’m not sure exactly what it is yet,” Ivan explained, “Last night I dreamed about getting kidnapped like this, and… other things as well. We’ll just have to see.”

  “I slammed a door just by thinking about it,” Paige muttered. “I can’t seem to do anything to get us out though, maybe it was triggered by adrenaline or something? A freak accident? I’ll keep trying, though.”

  Dan nodded at that. “Do what you can. For me and Phil, we’ve been able to feel people’s emotions through touch, and for me it works without touch, just not as well. Like… there was definitely  _ something _ coming from the kidnapper guy, anyway. And as for you all… just a lot of nervousness and fear.” He shuddered.

  “We were also able to hear each other’s thoughts, but only when we’re touching for some reason,” Phil continued, “Haven’t been able to try it on other people, though.”

  “Here,” Janice said, extending her arm to him. “Will I be able to feel anything?”

  “Not sure,” Phil responded, placing his fingertips on her arm, nearly missing in the dark. His head was flooded with her thoughts and feelings, just the same as it had been with Dan earlier.

  “Is it working? I can’t feel anything,” Janice said.

  “Yeah, it is. You’re really worried. We’ll figure out a way to get out of here soon.”

  “Can I try?” Dan asked, reaching out as well. The worry that Phil had described slammed into him from behind like a brick wall, and a new feeling pushed at his forehead intensely. “You’re worried… and focused? A few vague thoughts, some object? Round object? But not really anything else…”

  Janice sighed, leaning back. “I was thinking really hard about basketballs to see if that made it easier, so that must’ve been the focus part.”

  “Wait, one more try? I want to see something,” Dan said, grabbing onto her hand again. The same colors and emotions flooded his senses, but he tried to reach further. Suddenly he could see something else, images flashing through his conscience, only appearing for a few split seconds. He moved away. “Do you know someone with green hair? I think it works with memory as well. That’s all I really saw, I couldn’t make out anything else.”

  “My son, Mike. That’s all he wanted for his birthday, green hair.” Janice put one hand over her mouth in shock. “That’s incredible.”

  “I couldn’t see memories, that’s weird,” Phil said, “Maybe you’ve got something different?”

  “I’m sure something else will come up, it’s been different abilities with everyone,” Alan said. “Janice, what can you do?”

  “No clue. I haven’t noticed anything odd yet, maybe I didn’t get anything?” She sounded almost hopeful.

  “Maybe it’s just taking longer. Anyways, I’ve got some of the same empathy stuff as Dan and Phil, and I think…” He broke off hesitantly. “...a plant spoke to me as I got into the van?” Alan chuckled nervously.

  “Wish I could talk to plants,” Phil laughed. “I have so many houseplants at home…” He trailed off. “Who’s going to water them?”

  A somber silence fell across the car.

  “God, everyone’s going to be so freaked out. Phil, the SITC meetup was going to be tomorrow, all those people…”

  “Oh no,” Phil said. “They all paid for the meetup and we won’t be there.”

  “SITC? Meetup?” Aoife asked.

  “Do you mean Summer in the City?” Paige asked incredulously.

  “What’s that?” Gabriel asked.

  “It’s a sort of convention thing, for people who post on YouTube. We were going to be meeting people who watch our videos there,” Phil replied.

  “Oh, that’s cool. You must be the same Dan and Phil that my friend Angie is super obsessed with, then.” Paige let out a dry chuckle. “Must’ve just not known it was you because of the dark or something…”

  “Huh. Well I-when we get back, tell Angie we said hi,” Dan said.

  “I will,” Paige said, sounding faint.

  “Are you alright?” Gabriel asked, noticing her tone.

 “Y-yeah, I’m just trying to get this door-“

  “Don’t strain yourself too much, Paige. You might need your strength later,” Aoife advised.

  “I won’t need it all if we get out before that!” she snapped.

  No one responded for a moment.

  “I’m sorry,” Paige muttered. “It’s just- what’re they going to do to us? I-I just want to go home.”

  Suddenly, Dan realized: How old had Paige looked when he first met her on the ambulance? Thirteen, maybe fourteen? She was barely done with being a child, and going through such a horrible experience. Dan felt an awful pang in his chest at what she had said. Why  _ did _ this happen to them? What did they want?

  There was a small shuffling noise in the darkness, as someone scooted closer to the dark shape Dan perceived to be Paige. They raised both hands in a series of complicated gestures.

  Paige let out a breath. “No, Alex, I promise it’s going to be okay. We’ll be safe soon.”

  Alex let out a little sniffle, wrapping his arms around his sister. A tear of desperation sprung up in Dan’s eye at the sight- if Paige, at fourteen, was too young for this, her brother, who seemed to be around ten, needed to be as far away from this mess as possible.

 

-=II=-

  It felt like it had been several hours before the door opened again. They were greeted by a tall, graceful-looking woman with four of the armed men that had taken them in the first place, standing at her side like guards. Everyone in the truck jumped up to their feet as the doors opened, tensing and ready to run for it as soon as they got a chance.

  “Don’t bother running,” the woman said calmly, “It’s a waste of both of our time. We really do need you all alive.”

  “A-and what’s that for? Where are we? Who are you?” Paige stuttered.

  “Aww,” the woman cooed. “She’s a bit younger than most of the rest of you, yeah? Cute. You’ll get your questions answered in due time. Now, one by one, step out of the van and follow us. These guards will shoot if you try any of your… funny business.”

  “This is ridiculous,” Ivan spat as he stood to leave, the first one out. “What do you want with us? Why specifically us?”

  “All in due time, dear! Now hurry up, keep it moving.” Her eyes seemed to linger on Alex for a moment as he stumbled past, still clinging to Paige’s arm. For a moment, she almost looked… regretful? Sorry for them? Dan reached out tentatively, trying to figure out what she was feeling, finding only something that felt hot, burning, boiling. He did his best not to flinch, as the woman was eyeing him carefully.

  They shuffled out of the car in single file, watching the guards’ guns with wary eyes. Dan made sure to stick as close to Phil as possible, worrying that they could get separated.

  The sky above was bright blue and nearly cloudless. The yard was fenced in with barbed wire and, according to the bright red warning signs that hug every so often along the wire fence, electricity. A net loosely spanned the area above them, hung from fencepost to fencepost. A small grey concrete building lay ahead on a gravel driveway, with no visible windows and an awful, bleak feeling hanging in the dry air around them. Dan couldn’t recognize the emotion, and wasn’t sure he wanted to.

  Walking through the front door felt like walking into a prison. The inside of the building was lit up with too-bright fluorescent lights, reminding Dan of horror movie corridors and, oddly enough, classrooms without windows. He managed only a small glance over his shoulder at the sky before the door was slammed shut.

  They continued further down a hallway and down some stairs, through hall after hall in a pattern that seemed to be designed intentionally to confuse them. At second thought, Dan realized he wouldn’t be that surprised if it actually had been.

  Eventually they ended up in another badly lit room, containing a simple wooden desk with papers neatly stacked to one side, a short file cabinet, and a sleek desktop computer. The woman who had been leading them went around and sat down at the chair.

  “My name is Amelia Hartford- well, to you it is. This is the Center for Civilian Threats, or CCT for short.”

  “Threats?” Phil asked incredulously, “How are we threats? We haven’t done anything!”

  “You are all part of a group that has been shown holding certain incredibly powerful abilities. Our job here is to test those abilities, measure their possible effects on society, and begin to teach you how to harness them to aid your country.”

  “Like soldiers?” Janice asked, “I don’t want to be a soldier.”

  “Somewhat. Not all of you will reach that final point, depending on which abilities you end up possessing. I will advise you all, make no attempt to hide what you can do from us. We will find out, and the consequences will be… severe.”

  “How can you do this? We haven’t committed any crimes, you can’t hold us in custody like this! I’ll have you know, my brother’s a lawyer-“ Ivan said.

  “Your brother will most absolutely lose any case he brings against us. Suspected threats- and yes, any of you have the potential to be threats- can be held. This program is government-sanctioned, as you can read here.” She calmly passed Ivan a packet.

  Ivan scanned over the front of the packet carefully. “I’d like to keep this, to go over it further.”

  “Feel free,” Amelia said calmly. “In the meantime, you all will be assigned identification numbers, living quarters, and a schedule, as you will be staying here while we assess your abilities. You will find that there are more people like you around this building, brought in separately. The rules here are quite simple. No violence amongst yourselves, obey the commands of all guards, instructors, scientists, and myself- that is, everyone with a badge. You’ll catch on very quickly. You’ll be given your assignments in just a moment.” She turned to the filing cabinet, pulling out a stack of papers similar to the ones already stacked on one side of the desk.

  “When will we be able to leave?” Dan asked.

  “Oh, my dear, that depends on a lot of things,” Amelia smiled. “Let’s just say… you’ll stay for however long it takes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please remember to leave a comment! so far I don't have any, i'd love to hear your thoughts! even if it's how much u hate this fic, i'd be glad to hear it!  
> next update on monday, see you then!  
> MY TWITTER: [ bullshitphanfic ](https://twitter.com/bullshitphanfic)  
> MY TUMBLR: [ skyboidjh](http://skyboidjh.tumblr.com/)


	3. chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys! back at it again with another chapter :D
> 
> warning in this chapter for a rather scary moment involving a (fake) little girl being hit by a (fake) car- it is acknowledged as being fake as it is happening, but i wanted to warn anyways!
> 
> edit: goddamn i am never posting on mobile again... this chapter somehow double posted, i'm sorry to everyone who thought it was a new chapter/double update! also, fixed the formatting issues!

Chapter 3

  Twenty-four.

  The tiny number seemed a bit underwhelming, compared to the long string of digits one might imagine when hearing ‘identification number’, but Dan supposed that with so few people being assigned them in the building, it made sense.

  The living assignments given to them were diminutive, the room being mostly taken up by four uncomfortable-looking cots and a small dresser, holding what appeared to be four sets of basic baggy clothes- denim pants, grey cotton shirts. Dan and Phil had been lucky enough to be housed together with Alan and Janice, so at least they had already met the people who they were staying with once, rather than being housed with complete strangers.

  Official schedules were going to be handed out later, in their place they had been given a time to show up at something called ‘individual assessment” at varying times throughout the day. Phil’s slot was at 12:30 PM, and Dan’s was at 3PM. They were told to stay in their rooms until they were given further instructions via intercom or until the time for their assessment came.

  The clock above their door read only 10:30 AM, but it felt like it had been years since they had left the hotel that morning. A guard had come and gone with breakfast trays, which lay abandoned and empty next to the door.

  Dan and Phil were stretched out across the crappy cots, watching the time and letting their minds wander (there was basically nothing entertaining to do in the tiny room, much to their dismay). At about this time, in two days, they’d be expected at Summer in the City, just starting to get glimpses of the forming line of excited fans, all on their toes in anticipation of two people that wouldn’t be there. Surely they might realize something was wrong soon, Phil reasoned with himself. Both Dan and himself usually tweeted at least once a day, and while missing one day could be seen as normal, two days, especially before a big event like this, would definitely be out of character. He desperately wished that someone might have noticed their absence already, but knew that there was no way. They didn’t have any plans for the next two days leading up to SITC, the soonest they’d be definitely noted as missing would be when their friends saw that they weren’t at the party on the first day of the event.

  Their contemplative silence was interrupted by shouting coming from somewhere down the corridor that housed all the dorms. Phil recognized Janice’s voice ringing loud and clear, apparently shouting at a guard as she was led back to the dorm.

  “I just want to know about my kids! Please, they were in the hotel room with me this morning, I have to know where they are and that they’re safe!” Her voice grew closer, and Dan pulled on the doorknob only to find it locked. Alan had joined them by the door, exchanging worried glances with the other two. 

  The door finally burst open, revealing Janice, led in struggling and shouting by two massive guards. 

  “I just want to know about my kids!” She screamed, voice breaking on a sob, thrashing around in their tight grips on her arms. “I just want to know if they’re okay!”

  The guards led her over to the cot nearest the door- which happened to be her own- and gently (as gently as two massively muscular and intimidating guards could manage) sat her down. They attempted to placate her screaming and crying to no avail, whispered attempts at consolation and tentative pats on the shoulder doing nothing to change the fact that they had no idea where her children were. Eventually the two had no other choice but to leave, making promises that rung empty in their eyes about ‘checking the records’ and ‘keeping an eye out’ for the two boys Janice had described to them as they were called elsewhere by walkie-talkies hung on their belts. Dan eyed their compassionate glances at Janice as they left with caution, realizing that these guards may not be the horrible people they seemed to be, yet still suspicious of their motivations.

  As soon as the guards were out of the door, Dan, Phil, and Alan gathered around Janice, offering what little comfort they could to the bawling woman. 

  “How did you get out?” Dan asked a few minutes later, when her sobs had slowed to mere sniffles, “The door was locked when we tried it at first.”

  “Picked it with a hairpin,” Janice muttered with a watery smile, “Learned how when I was a teenager, sneaking out to parties and the like. Never thought I’d have to use it again, especially not like this...”

  “Come on, let’s look around,” Alan supplied as a distraction. “There must be  _ something _ mildly interesting to do in here…”

  -=II=-

  Their lunch trays arrived promptly at noon, containing cold sandwiches and some sort of lukewarm grey soup in a styrofoam cup that none of them fully trusted enough to eat. 

  “So, these assessments- what d’you guys think they’re all about?” Alan asked in between bites of his sandwich. 

  “Well, I think it’s pretty safe to assume they’re going to figure out what our abilities are,” Janice replied. “But how?”

  “There isn’t much point in worrying about it, it’s not like we can change whatever’s going to happen,” Dan muttered.

  “Easy for you to say, you’re going last,” Phil said from his position lying on his cot, tray lying untouched on the floor next to him. 

  “Sorry, I guess you’re right.”

  “Phil, eat something. You’ll feel better if you do,” Janice reprimanded.

  “Feel sick,” he complained.

  “You should still eat. I know you’re nervous about going first, but I’m sure it’ll be fine! You’re just letting your imagination get the best of you.”

  Phil peered over the edge of his cot at them, who had formed a loose circle on the linoleum floor with their trays. He sighed, sat up, and took a bite of his sandwich. “I just hate that I’m not in control of it, I don’t even have a vague idea of what to expect.”

  Dan knew this, of course. Phil was the one to panic if they were a few steps behind his schedule for getting to an airport on time, the one to push Dan out of procrastinating the important things because it put  _ him _ on edge. Phil liked control and order, while Dan would just put off worrying about things, because what’s the point in being worried about missing the bus if it’s already gone and you can’t do anything about it?

  Nobody had a particularly good response for Phil, as they didn’t know what to expect either. Phil couldn’t stop thinking, imagining every awful scenario and its outcome- feeling an emotion from someone he wasn’t supposed to, the powers suddenly disappearing and him being thrown out with no way to contact Dan, testing methods that might hurt-

_ It’s not like they can do anything too horrible, _ he reasoned.  _ But then again, you  _ are _ a criminal in their eyes, for some reason.  _

__ Phil could feel Dan’s eyes on him. 

  “Stop worrying, I can feel it from here and you’re practically shaking the room.”

  “Easier said than done. I wonder how long the assessment will last?” 

  “Judging from the time slots they gave us, probably no longer than a half hour to forty-five minutes, if not shorter than that. You’ll be fine, Phil.”

  Something about the way Dan said it was enough to calm his nerves  for a little while, but it was barely a minute later that he was worrying all over again. 

  Dan was back to staring daggers at Phil, about to say something else to try to calm him down when Alan stood up abruptly. 

  “Y’know what, Janice? I say we should check out the… bathroom. Yeah, the bathroom, we’ve gotta make sure that’s got everything we need, so we can ask for more if we need it. Yeah.”

  It was a less than graceful exit, but one that Dan and Phil appreciated nonetheless. Dan turned to Phil as soon as they left, holding his arms out for a hug. 

  On camera, Dan wasn’t the most tactile of people, the result of his fear of people taking his closeness to Phil in a completely different way than he intended. However, when the camera was off, hugs and cuddles were among the best ways he knew to offer comfort when he felt words couldn’t bring across his meaning well enough.

  Phil scooted closer and leaned into Dan’s outstretched arms, feeling immediately the worry Dan had described to him- they were both shaking, in fear, in anxiety, in worry for each other- so hard that it did seem to shake the room. They were an earthquake. Dan could feel it too, stronger now, and despite the fog of uncertainty hanging in the air, there was a tug of something new, something floating and giddy and somehow, despite it all, elated.

-=II=-

  When it came time to leave, after giving Dan a short, final hug, Phil discovered that the assessment rooms weren’t all that far from their dorm at all, shown on a map in the hallway just outside as three small, greyed out squares in a long line of other small greyed out squares all marked as classrooms.  _ Why would classrooms be needed in a place like this? _ Phil wondered, _ Then again, they did say they would train us on how to use our powers. But how would they know how the powers work any better than we do?  _

  His thoughts were interrupted by him turning a corner and finding himself at his destination, a wide hallway bordered by numbered doors all around. He wiped his sweating palms on his pants, looking around for some hint as to which of the rooms he was supposed to go to. 

  That hint came in the form of a hassled-looking man coming out of the farthest door, cupping his hands around his mouth and shouting, “Twenty one! I need number twenty one in here! If you do not report for assessment you will lose bunkmate privileges and afternoon meals!”

  At that, Phil rushed over. Could they seriously take meals away for something as tiny as being a few minutes late? He wouldn’t doubt it, actually. “Sorry if I’m a little late...” He trailed off, not having an excuse for his tardiness. 

  “Whatever, just hurry up and go, thirty minutes is crunch time as it is. Come on, inside you go,” the man said impatiently. 

  Phil did as he was told, slipping inside the heavy grey door and looking around. Nothing about it really struck him as extraordinary, with a desk and chair facing to one side and another solitary chair in the middle of the room, facing the desk. The room itself had grey concrete floors and soft off-white walls, lit by some basic hanging lights. 

  “Take a seat, please,” The man gestured to the chair in the middle of the room, continuing as if reading off of a script. “This is the Center for Civilian Threat’s capability evaluation, as authorized on 7th August, 2014 by...”

  He continued to drone on, listing a few laws and legal details that Phil couldn’t make much sense of. 

  “My name is Cleveland Peckham, and I will be administering this assessment. The evaluation consists of a three minute briefing as required by law, a seven minute interview, followed by twenty minutes of ability tests. If you have any questions, ask them now.”

  Phil stared at the man, not knowing where to begin, but before he could form his thoughts into even one coherent question, Cleveland was talking again.

  “Excellent. Now we will proceed with the interview, what is your full legal name and age?”

  “Philip Michael Lester, 27- What are ‘ability tests’, how do they work?”

  “The time for questions from you is over. Yesterday, you checked into a hospital with highly elevated levels of an unidentified gas in your blood and lungs. What is the source of this?”

  “I don’t know anything about it, just that someone gassed my apartment? We never really got a  _ chance _ to find out anything more than that.” Phil couldn’t keep the slight bitterness out of his tone.

  “Do you have any ideas as to who would do that?”

  “No-”

  “If you are caught lying, you will be punished.”

  “But I really don’t know!” Phil yelped, panicking a bit.

  “This exact concentration of argon gas, mixed with a chemical that has not yet been identified, has caused widespread... anomalies in humans. We have medical reason to believe that you have such anomalies as well. What are they? Again, lying is highly punishable.”

  Phil hesitated. What if he ended up having some power he didn’t know about yet? “I can... hear my friend’s thoughts and emotions, if I’m touching him. I can only hear thoughts from him, but the emotions part I can do with other people too. I’m not sure about anything else though, I haven’t noticed anything else, I swear!”

  Cleveland scribbled something down on the notepad in front of him, staying silent for a moment. “Who is this friend? Is he here?”

  “Yes, he is, Dan Howell,” Phil said.

  Cleveland paused for a moment, pen hovering over the notepad for a second. “What is your relation to him?”

  “My flatmate, best friend.”

  He returned that comment with a surprised look before continuing with his notes. “You said your apartment was gassed, describe what happened in as much detail as possible.”

  Phil recounted how he had just been in his room, browsing social media on his laptop when he had noticed that the air felt thicker, like there was smoke coming from somewhere, though he could see none. He recalled stumbling into the hall to find Dan, hearing him call out and then a loud thump as he passed out and slumped to the ground. He had then woken Dan up, and they had managed to get to the front door where paramedics had been waiting, and had gotten help. 

  “Is that.. All? Or do you need me to talk about the hospital and all that?”

  “No, no, that’s enough,” Cleveland muttered, bent over his notepad once more, scribbling furiously. He remained mute for another minute or so, before suddenly snapping the notebook shut and standing. 

  Phil jumped a bit at the sudden movement. 

  “Now for the ability assessment, I ask that you please cooperate and follow instructions. Failure to do so will result in loss of bunkmate privileges for two to six months. For this evaluation, you will have several wires connected by tape and a bit of glue to your head and neck, in order to monitor brain activity. I will leave the room and for a few minutes, images will be projected onto the walls of this room and your response will be monitored and measured. For the remaining time, I will return and further instructions will be given at that time. Do you understand?”

  Phil nodded, this seemed simple enough. He was slightly concerned about  what the images might contain, but if it was only for a few minutes...

  He was led to a small side room that he had noticed on the way in and allowed the wires to be put on without a fight, although they did itch quite a lot and the assistant Cleveland had let in to help him was less than gentle, tugging his hair more roughly than necessary and getting glue everywhere- he was sure that’d be a pain to get out of his hair later.

  Soon he was sent back into the main room, Cleveland and the assistant remaining in the side room where there were computers and all sorts of weird machines- Phil supposed that was where the data from the wires was collected. He stood in the middle of the room, sighing and bouncing on his toes in anticipation. They were just pictures, he told himself, not real. It couldn’t be that bad, right? He usually wasn’t too bad with horror movies, and he loved horror books- he just needed to keep reminding himself that it wasn’t real, and surely he’d be fine.

  The room suddenly grew brighter, a hatch opening in the ceiling and a projector lowered into the room until it was hanging around a few feet from the high ceiling, unlike any projector Phil had seen before. It was bigger, for one, with multiple lenses facing all sides and wires sticking out all over like a science project gone wrong. 

  The projector flickered to life, and Phil had to take a deep breath at what he saw. 

  A car was headed straight for him.

_ It’s not real, it’s not real, it’s not real, just stay put,  _ Phil thought, trying to look away but finding that the multi-lensed projector was a 360 ° view of dark trees and underbrush, no signs of civilizations other than the badly-paved highway under his feet . The car was coming closer and closer, seeming to gain speed as it went. It was maybe only 100 meters away now. 50. 30. 

  A small child, a little girl with wide brown eyes and blonde hair, stepped out into the road, looking right at Phil. Her eyes widened, almost comically, as she seemed to hear the car, realizing what was happening. But still, she faced Phil, frozen like stone.

  All thoughts, reminders that this wasn’t real flew from Phil’s mind. He reached out for the girl, trying to run towards her, but for some reason he couldn’t move. 

  The realization struck him that if she didn’t move, he would have to watch her die. He screamed, begging her to move out of the way, throwing his outstretched arm to the side as if to show her where to go. 

  Then, suddenly, she was gone. The car faded, the forest disappeared. Phil looked around in astonishment, seeing the white walls return around him. He breathed heavily, head jerking around to watch the trees fade back into white drywall as he came back to his senses. 

  A huge gash had been ripped into the wall, following the pattern that he had waved his arm in. 

_ Did I do that? _

__ From the side room, Cleveland emerged. He looked pale, shaken. He remained silent as he approached Phil, bending down to undo the straps Phil hadn’t noticed coming up and locking around his feet and up to just above his knees… which explained why he hadn’t been able to move. 

  Cleveland looked at Phil, slack jawed, with sweat beading on his brow and eyes wide. He swallowed, trying to regain his composure. “We- we’ll just be moving over to the next open room while this gets fixed up,” he squeaked, not looking Phil in the eyes. 

  Phil couldn’t stop looking at the huge chunks of what had been the wall scattered across the floor, paint scraped off in some places as if a wild animal had torn through instead of just… Phil. How could he have done that? 

  Cleveland walked stiffly towards the door, casting anxious glances back over his shoulder at Phil as he went. “C-come on now, we’re running out of time.”

  Phil followed slowly, head still craned around to stare at the massive hole in the wall, even as a new group rushed in, apparently to fix it up somehow.

  The rest of the test passed in a blur, as Phil was poked, prodded, had blood taken, made to run on a treadmill, subjected to a variety of people projecting extreme emotions (in a way that was frankly, way too loud and hurt Phil’s head), made to stare at very small objects, and most oddly, presented with a dead plant.

  “What am I supposed to do with this?” Phil asked tiredly, as the plant was dumped on the table in front of him.

  “Touch it. Try to water it. Bring it back to life.”

  Phil did, and lo and behold, nothing happened. “What was that supposed to do, then?” he sighed.

 The plant was removed from the table. Cleveland and a few others that had come in to help him since the previous room’s incident furiously wrote notes.

  “What are you even writing notes on, it didn’t do anything!” Phil leaned his head back, exasperation creeping into his tone. 

  “You’re free to go,” Cleveland mumbled, face buried in his clipboard.

  Phil was too relieved to question it, standing quickly and power walking straight out of the door. Glancing at the clock, he found that it had definitely been longer than 30 minutes. He found his way back to the dorm with ease, opening the door to find Dan sitting on the edge of his cot, bouncing his leg up and down. 

  Dan jumped straight up when Phil walked in, standing up to greet him and reaching out without thinking twice about it. Dan felt Phil’s relief like a deep breath of fresh air, quickly overlapped by shock slamming into him like a bucket of ice had been dumped over his head, and a pinch of pain he couldn’t quite pin down the source of. Dan pulled back almost immediately, leaving one hand lingering on Phil’s arm. It occurred to him that perhaps they ought to be careful about things like this, to avoid more private emotions being overheard. He retracted the hand, starting to apologize but he was immediately interrupted by Phil.

  “Don’t worry about it, I do agree about the privacy thing, though. Maybe we should just ask first, just in case. I’m not sure I can be very articulate in explaining what just happened, so it’s probably best that you did that, so you know- Dan, it was so awful, the first part was okay, just like an interview, but then they said they needed to do ability tests and they showed me things that weren’t real and I busted open the wall, made me run a lot and they cut my arm a bit to see if I’d heal and made me touch a dead plant-”

  “Phil, slow down, you’re not making any sense,” Dan said as calmly as he could, “Come sit down and tell me everything in order and… slower.”

  Phil nodded and slumped down onto his cot. “It started off kinda alright, there was a guy in the room and he asked me a bunch of questions about what happened with the apartment and what I could do- oh God, I didn’t know I could do the wall breaking thing, he said I’d be punished for not telling them all my powers, I might get kicked out of this room-”

  “Shh, don’t worry about it now, tell me the rest,” Dan said.

  Phil continued his tale, up to him being moved into the next room. 

  “Then they made me do loads of dumb things, they cut my arm-” Phil rolled up his left sleeve to show Dan the small bandaged area where the inch long cut had been made, “-and started asking me all these questions about, like, rocket science or something, I didn’t know what they were even talking about, so they gave up on that pretty soon, but then they brought out this treadmill and made me run way too fast until I fell,” Phil gestured to his reddened, rug burned, knees. “Then they brought in a whole bunch of people, made me say how each of them were feeling and this one guy was so angry, Dan...”

  Phil trailed off, quiet for a moment. “They tried to get me to say what they were thinking, too, and I couldn’t- that was scary, he was so angry and I couldn’t tell why or if he was going to hurt me or someone else because of it. It got easier from then on, they wanted me to look at some really small things so they could see my brain activity through the wire things and tell if I could see them better than normal or something. Then they brought me a dead plant and told me to touch it? I’m not sure what that was about, they just had me touch it and then said I could leave. It felt like I was in there for years, doing all their dumb tests.”

  “I’m sorry,” Dan said, unsure of what else he  _ could _ say. 

  Phil shook his head. “It’s okay. I’m just worried about you now, is there anything else you want to know that could help?”

  Dan hesitated. “The girl and the car- was there anything else in the room to focus on? I- I know I can’t do what you did, I was trying it when we were stuck in the van. I don’t want to see-”

  “There’s a chair and a desk to one side. For some reason, I couldn’t see the projector even though it was right above me, and it was projecting all around- there are straps that hold your feet to the floor, focus on those.”

  “Sounds horrible,” Dan muttered with a nervous laugh. He leaned back against the wall, lacing his fingers together and then apart again. 

  It was 2:45 now, fifteen minutes before Dan’s evaluation was set to start. 

  Phil tentatively shuffled closer to Dan, their shoulders brushing together just slightly. He managed to catch Dan’s eye, silently asking whether this was okay, and receiving a small nod in return. 

  Phil’s worry and shock were still swirling in patterns of fog around his head, there was an upwards tug in his ribcage, hope, and a flutter in his stomach that Dan knew but couldn’t identify. 

  The whole process had gotten a lot less dizzying and shocking since the first time they had done this, now settling into a more pleasant flash of color and thoughts that floated past consciousness did so a lot less... sharply than before. 

  Said thoughts were ones of fear and worry, yet there was courage there too, softening the situation, strengthening and lifting up Dan especially, as the time grew nearer for him to leave.

  The two almost lost track of time, staying like that, side by side, barely touching, and lost in each other’s thoughts. 

_ ‘It’ll be okay.’ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twitter: [ bullshitphanfic ](https://twitter.com/bullshitphanfic)  
> tumblr: [ skyboidjh ](https://skyboidjh.tumblr.com)  
> comments mean the world to me, even if it's just complaining about my incompetency when it comes to posting on mobile!  
> drop a kudos if you enjoyed!


	4. chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's the week of me spectacularly fucking up html and basic ao3 posting apparently! wooo! apologies to those subscribed, i had to republish this several times. please let me know if the images are working, if anyone is actually reading this far lmao  
> sorry, it's been a rough week. i hope yours goes well!

**Chapter 4**

 

3:46PM @ **phantasticlions** : guys. [ [ https://twitter.com/purpleverence/status/801544721432793096 ](https://twitter.com/purpleverence/status/801544721432793096) ] [ [ https://twitter.com/bullshitphanfic/status/801544409363976193 ](https://twitter.com/bullshitphanfic/status/801544409363976193) ]

3:46PM @ **amazingangie** : i’m kinda scared? my friend paige isnt responding to my texts and wasnt in school today and my anxiety is just overall going fucking nuts

3:46PM @ **lilphanficer** : me too. my mom wont stop asking me what’s wrong and idk how to answer her, she hates the concept of youtube and would probably be glad that two of ‘those internet creeps’ were missing

3:47PM @ **sarulia1994** : where tf are they?

3:47PM @ **phuttyandrutty** : i dont know??? thts kind of the whole point of the situation no one knows

3:47PM @ **phantasticlions** : dont get sassy and start drama clara that’s literally the last thing we need, demon phannies like you starting drama

3:48PM: @ **phuttyandrutty** : wow i cant believe ur so mean to me 

3:49PM: @ **lilphanficer** : y’all. rly?

3:57PM: @ **lilphanficer** : sorry im just rly on edge and cant stand people joking about this, it’s serious

4:01PM: @ **phuttyandrutty** : you’re right, you don’t have to apologize. These people on my tl joking about it are driving me nuts

4:02PM: @ **amazingangie** : block their asses

4:02PM: @ **phuttyandrutty** : im on it

4:05PM: @ **ghcstdicks** : i just got online and saw im crying in math class what the fuck this is so scary

4:06PM: @ **amazingangie** : [ [ http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdcbi9ZuIt1rjd8x5o1_400.gif ](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdcbi9ZuIt1rjd8x5o1_400.gif) ]

-=II=-

 

  Dan squeezed his eyes shut at the sound of brakes squealing on asphalt, trying his best to calm his racing heart and ignore what he knew must’ve just happened before him.  _ Not real not real not real not real... _

  It had been exactly like Phil said, feet strapped to the ground, projector overhead and all around, the car... 

  He felt sick. 

  The straps at his feet were released and he was led over to a chair, where the next few minutes passed in a blur. Suddenly more people were entering the room, and Dan could feel their emotions from across the room- emotions that felt too intense, like they were forced, so strong that they seemed to be screaming at him even from a distance. He remembered Phil mentioning these- Anger, jealousy, happiness, fear, hope- negative and positive mixed around his head in a blur. Memories started to crowd in too as he moved down the line, all things that these people were deliberately remembering in order to force their emotion or things that had just happened. All of the thoughts were pushing and shoving and vying to be heard- one, belonging to the jealous man, seemed to jump out. 

  It was a simple recent memory, of him walking into the room just moments ago. But it was pushing at Dan, prodding at and invading his every other thought- so Dan pushed back at it. 

  He shoved it harder and harder, just wanting it to go away- until suddenly he  _ was _ the jealous man, walking in through the door, seeing his own anxious face as he sat at the chair in the center of the room, white as a sheet.

  Then, the memory was gone. 

  The jealous man flinched away from Dan’s brief touch as if doused in ice water, before looking around in a confused manner. His forced jealousy wavered and faded into confusion, and Dan could tell that that memory simply... wasn’t in his head anymore. But Dan could remember it so vividly, as if it had happened to himself.

  The people exited the room swiftly after that, as the jealous man had been last in line, leaving Dan alone with his assessment proctor once more. 

-=II=-

  “What do you mean? Like, you actually erased it?” 

  The whole group from the van were eating dinner together, crowded around a table in the mess hall- apparently this would be the normal eating space, they hadn’t used it at lunch because it was still being set up. Paige was leaning slightly over the table, staring at Dan in rapt fascination. 

  “I think so,” he muttered. “Not just that, either. It was almost like I took it for myself. I can remember it clear as day, almost like it happened to me, but he can’t anymore.” There was something so horrifying about admitting that to himself, that he had actually taken a memory from someone and erased it from their awareness, without them ever knowing. It had only been a tiny memory, one that most likely wouldn’t ever affect them again, but the implications were much more massive. 

  What about memories that were bigger? More significant? Weddings, childbirths, families… He could just erase massive parts of life, he realized, slumping down in his seat a bit further. He wouldn’t, of course, but he  _ could _ . 

_ L’appel du vide _ , as he’d called it in a danisnotonfire video once. The call of the void. He never would do it, of course not, but he  _ could _ . 

  And that terrified him.

  Sensing Dan’s sudden discomfort and silence, Phil thankfully changed the subject. “So, did any of you guys find out any new powers?”

  “Apparently I can talk to plants,” Alan said, eliciting giggles from around the table.

  “What?” Phil asked with a laugh.

  “Yeah, of all the weird and useless powers in the world,”

  “Hey, I’d love to be able to do that!” Phil smiled, “I could finally get to know all of my houseplants.”

  “Has anyone seen Janice?” Dan asked suddenly, realizing that the woman was nowhere to be seen. 

  “She was here for a little while, but she said she wasn’t hungry and left to go back to the dorm,” Alan replied.

  “That’s odd,” Aoife remarked, “Do you think she’s alright?” 

  “I’m going to talk to her when we get back- I think for now she just needs to be alone for a bit- but anyways, the rest of you? New powers?”

  “They weren’t the ones to say it, but I’m pretty sure I’ve officially got future vision,” Ivan said with a sigh. “Last night I dreamed every single thing that would happen to me today, literally down to me telling you all this.”

  “Nothing new for me,” Paige responded. “Still just the moving things by thinking, and I’m still having a tough time controlling it.” She seemed a little disappointed with this.

  “They’re not sure what I can do,” Aoife said. “I haven’t got the foggiest idea either, honestly. I’m hoping that nothing does show up, after all. Alex, though…” She grinned widely. “He can project his thoughts into other people’s heads, it’s incredible. He can talk, sort of.”

  The little boy grinned as well, slumping down in his chair shyly as everyone turned to smile at him. A soft ‘hi’ seemed to echo around Dan’s brain, quiet, but definitely there. Everyone at the table was ecstatic, smiling and cheering him on. Paige had tears in her eyes, pausing in her rapid-fire sign language conversation with her brother to wipe at her eyes. 

  “He’s still a bit more comfortable talking in BSL for now, as he’s still not used to it, so we’ll still have to translate for a bit. But… Alex can talk!” Paige couldn’t stop smiling, seeming to glow like the sun. 

  Their excitement and congratulations were interrupted by an announcement over the loudspeakers, telling them that schedules would be passed out to everyone later that night, based on the results of their assessments. An uneasy murmur passed around the room, but everyone was still too excited to let it get to their table.

  They continued to chat away amicably for the rest of dinner, finally retiring to their rooms after a while.

  “Hey, guys?” Alan said, speeding up his stride to catch up to Dan and Phil as they began walking back, “Don’t ask Janice about her powers yet. I think she’s pretty freaked out about whatever happened and maybe we should wait for her to say something first, to give her a bit of space.”

  “Alright, that makes sense,” Phil agreed. “I hope she’s alright.”

  Sure enough, as they entered the room, Janice was facing away from them, rolled up in all of her blankets and curled into a ball. 

  “We missed you at dinner, Janice,” Dan said hesitantly. She didn’t respond.

  “Hey, now that we’re back here, I can show you all what I got before you showed up!” Alan said, excitement in his voice. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a worn deck of cards. “One of the guards gave it to me, I had been trying some small talk to maybe learn some more about this place and he seemed pretty sympathetic when I talked about how little we had to do around here.”

  “That’s a good idea, thanks Alan,” Dan said.

  “What games do you guys know how to play? I was never really one for cards, so I’m not much use beyond Go Fish and Spoons...” Alan said.

  “Me too, just those and Snap,” Dan replied.

  “Same here,” Phil said.

  “I know poker,” Janice said from the corner, surprising them all, “Used to play in college. I dunno how good I’ll be at explaining, but I can give it a try.” She straightened up and scooted to the end of her mattress, avoiding everyone’s eyes. She began to explain in a soft tone, taking the cards from Alan and dealing them out properly. The game that ensued was slow-going, as everyone learned the rules and got a hold on the way everything worked, yet Janice remained patient and helpful as they went, taking her obvious victory with no more than a small nod and immediate redealing of the cards.

  The second game went a bit faster, Janice winning again. They re-shuffled and dealt the cards a third time, this time for a round of Go Fish, which was a much more quickly-paced and lively experience. 

  Halfway through the second round, Janice finally spoke what had been almost visibly weighing her down.

  “I think I saw a dead person,” she said suddenly. 

  Everyone looks up, staring at her in shock. 

  “It was during my assessment, I didn’t- I didn’t  _ see _ him, exactly, he was like a sort of blur, just standing next to the man who was doing all the tests. I don’t know how I knew he was a he, I just… felt it.”

  “Janice, that’s- I’m-” Dan tried to say something, but was unsure what he  _ should _ say.

  “Really bad, yeah,” she laughed hollowly, “I just keep thinking, what if I were to see my dad? My grandparents? What if someone I knew a long time ago but never spoke to again shows up without me ever having known that they died? I don’t want this,” she put her cards down, hugging her legs to her chest.

  “How much sleep did you get last night? Maybe it was just…” Alan floundered around for an answer that never came.

  “I know it was real,” Janice shook her head. “I just… I need some time to come to terms with it, I-I’ll be fine…”

  “Let us know if we can do anything, okay?” Phil asked, brow furrowed. 

  “I’ll be fine,” she snapped. She froze, casting them an apologetic look but not voicing an apology before continuing in a much softer voice. “So, Alan, want to learn Snap?”

-=II=-

  At eight o’clock that night exactly, four pieces of paper were slipped under the door and the loudspeaker crackled to life. 

  “Attention. Timetables have just been distributed to your dormitory door. Do not damage or lose these papers, as they are the only copies you will receive. On each, you will find a name and revised ID number at the top of the page, followed by a weekly schedule. Each schedule is unique to the person named at the top of the document and them alone. 

  “Some papers will only have a name and new ID number on them. Those that are named on papers with this information and this information only are expected to follow the directions listed below their information and bring that paper to Admissions by 8:30 PM sharp. If you are not present, punishment will be severe. 

  “Please look over your schedules and report to Admissions if necessary. Lights will be turned out at 9:30 PM. Thank you for your cooperation.”

  Click.

  The rush towards the door was immediate after the loudspeaker was finished, everyone scrambling for their papers. 

  Dan was the first to get to his, heart sinking in uncertainty as he saw that his paper held no schedule. 

 

  He moved out of the way so that everyone else could get their papers, sinking down onto his cot. Why was he going to Admissions? Why was he being singled out? What did the new ‘-06’ mean at the end of his ID number?

  “Oh,” Phil whispered as he picked up his own paper.

 

  He quickly walked over to Dan, grabbing his paper and feeling what felt like a ton of weight lifted from his chest when he saw that they were going to be doing the same thing. Surely everyone going to Admissions would be sticking together, right? But why? What for?

  Janice couldn’t stop the quick gasp from leaving her lips. There was no schedule here.  _ They must’ve found out _ , he panicked brain supplies.  _ They know what a freak you are. _ She dared to hope for a moment that it meant she was going home, but what if they really  _ had _ found out about what she could do? There would be no letting her out of their sight if that was the case. 

  “Who else has to go to Admissions?” She asked, voice surprisingly hollow, “Please, don’t tell me I’m the only one.”

  “Both of us,” Phil answered..

 

  “I’m... not going with you,” Alan groaned.

  “It’s not like you’re leaving though, right? Maybe they just need to give you special schedules or directions for some reason, and then you’ll be back?” Alan asked. 

  “Lights go out at 9:30,” Phil pointed out. “This shouldn’t take too long, then.”

  “Yeah, they probably wouldn’t make us walk back in the dark.”

  “Guys, I hate to be the one to say it, but what if we’re not coming back? Going somewhere else, I mean,” Dan added cautiously.

  “But why us, then? What do the three of us have in common that Alan doesn’t?” Janice questioned. 

  The group pored over the schedules for as long as they could, quickly ruling out their ID numbers (the first parts of them were similar, between 21 and 24, but the new second number seemed completely random) and powers. Soon, though, it was almost 8:30 and they couldn’t wait any longer without being late. Alan gave Janice a hug, awkward handshakes to Dan and Phil, and made them promise to be back before too long. It was a hopeful sort of goodbye, because what more could they ask for than hope?

-=II=-

  Admissions was the same as it had been when they had come through yesterday, now with about thirty people milling around, waiting for... whatever it was that they were supposed to be waiting for. 

  Dan clutched tightly onto his pyjamas, which he had changed out of shortly after arriving- yes, comforts of home were nice, but they were bright blue cookie monster pants and a slightly too-small white shirt- no matter how desperate he was to keep that little bit of home and comfort with him, there was no way that he’d walk around a building full of strangers in those for any longer than he had to.

  He glanced around the room, scoping out the people for any hints as to why they were here. No characteristic seemed to be shared between them, at least not one he could see at first glance. 

  Suddenly, he spotted a familiar shock of curly brown hair across the room. Paige. Thank God for a familiar face. He, Janice, and Phil immediately strode up to her, struck with worry when they saw that neither her parents nor brother were there.

  She turned to them with worry in her eyes, but seeming slightly relieved to see them.

  “Where’re the others?”

  “They had to stay behind, Mom tried to come with me anyways, but they wouldn’t let her. Why the hell are we here?”

  “No idea. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

  As if on cue, the muttering crowd all around them fell silent for a moment, then roared wildly with shouts and questions. From Dan’s height-advantaged position, he could see the top of a blonde head weaving through the crowd, before hopping up onto a small raised platform to one side. It was Amelia Hartford. 

  The questions and yells grew even louder now that everyone could see her, though she seemed unbothered by the noise.    
  “When are we going home?”

  “What do you want with us now?”

  “Are we leaving?”

  “Let me out!”

  After a few seconds, Amelia appeared to have heard enough, raising one hand in a gesture for silence. It worked, everyone wanting to hear the answers to their inquiries. 

  “You all are a group of extraordinarily gifted individuals,” she began, “and talent like that needs closer... guidance. From here, you all will be moved out to another location-”

  Outraged cries followed this, and she held up her hand again, but this time, the gesture was ignored.  “SILENCE!” She finally shouted after a few other failed attempts at peace, shocking most of the crowd back into noiselessness. 

  “At this new location, you will receive better accommodations, more personalized power control lessons, and chances to help improve the world with your gifts.”

  “But what about my family!” Paige shouted, having finally recollected herself from the shock of the news. “They’re still here, I can’t leave without them!” This was met with scattered shouts of agreement throughout the crowd.

  Amelia continued as if nothing had been said. “Now, everyone, proceed out the door to your left in a calm and orderly fashion. A bus is waiting outside, please take a seat and we will be leaving momentarily.” She smiled sweetly and began to step down from her platform, suddenly surrounded by guards on all sides. The door she had mentioned swung open, and those near it flinched away as if it held an angry lion just outside. 

  “Go on then, I’ll be with you in a moment!” Amelia said, now out of sight. 

  No one moved.

  The guards that lined the room started to step towards the center, shoving everyone forwards. 

  Outside of the door were more guards, providing no chance for escape, almost seeming to  _ herd _ them towards their destination. A large, black bus loomed ahead in the dark with thick, blacked-out windows and wide tires. 

  “Where are we going!?” Another voice shouted. 

  Dan did his best to stick with his group as they were shoved along, finally giving in and clutching onto Phil’s hand tightly. 

  The colors swirling around him were darker than usual, more invisible with the black night sky above. Phil’s fear, worry, and a bit of anger all settled in the pit of Dan’s stomach like a rock alongside his own feelings. Phil’s outraged thoughts and desperation were a constant tug in his chest, paired with worry’s cloud and... something else, egging him on. 

  The crowd of people were shoved into a sort of rough line, most groups struggling to stick together in the chaos of it all.

  Inside, the bus seemed fairly nice, with rows of cushioned seats (although the pattern on them was truly awful, like a rainbow threw up) and lights all around. Each row had four seats in total, with a narrow walkway running down the middle to split the rows into two and two, lit up by ridiculous flashing pink and purple lights. Dan and Phil made their way to the back of the bus, almost tripping several times in the narrow space as they ducked to avoid the ceiling. 

  They sat down uncomfortably, pulling their legs up as best as they could- being tall really did have its disadvantages- and buckled their seatbelts as the rest of the group filed in. Paige and Janice chose the seats across from them.

  At one point, a man had stopped, right in the middle of the aisle, trying to turn around and get back to someone sitting further up the bus. The confusion and fear of the people all around was so strong that it leaked off them in waves, making Dan nauseous. The guards started shouting at the man who had stopped and Dan leaned back in his seat, eyes closed in an attempt to alleviate his oncoming headache. 

  “You alright?” Phil asked, noticing his friend’s face had gone suddenly paler. 

  “Everyone’s feeling too much. Making me a bit dizzy.”

  “Sorry,” Phil said, wishing he could do something to help.

  “Not your fault,” Dan replied, “Just need to get some sleep or something.”

  “Alright,” Phil said, “I’ll try to think about happy things, if that helps.”

  Dan opened his eyes for a moment, shooting Phil a grateful smile before returning to the brink of sleep again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please leave a comment if you're still with me!  
> twitter: @bullshitphanfic  
> tumblr: skyboidjh.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> hi! don't forget to subscribe and drop a kudos if you enjoyed! (i really hope you did, this fic is my CHILD)  
> comments with constructive criticism/screaming/pointing out my typos are more than welcome!  
> MY TWITTER: [ bullshitphanfic ](https://twitter.com/bullshitphanfic)  
> MY TUMBLR: [ skyboidjh](http://skyboidjh.tumblr.com/)


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